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Should I migrate my SUS content to WSUS? |
| in many situations, it may be preferable to start with fresh
metadata as well as downloading content. Consider these comparative points. (1) SUS requires you to download all product content in a language group, which means that you could have metadata in the datastore for platforms you don't support (e.g Windows 2000 in an XP/2003 only organization, or XP/2003 in a Windows 2000 only organization, two common scenarios that come to mind), as well as content in the content store, that you don't need. (2) Unless you're a large organization and using Express Installation files (not available in SUS), or a multilanguage organization, it's highly unlikely that you'll actually download 2GB of content for WSUS, though you might easily have that much content in your current SUS store. For example, my system, supporting Windows 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2 systems, not including service packs, uses about 180MB of space for an English-only installation. This is not meant to be representative of a typical installation, but does aptly demonstrate how little disk space a functional installation can actually use. If you uninstall SUS first, WSUS will install to port 80 if it does not detect any conflicts. If it detects that port 80 is already in use, it will install to port 8530. But not to fret, it's a trivial exercise to migrate the eight virtual directories and two files from a 'new' virtual server into the original Default Web Server virtual server, if, ultimately, you want the whole show on the same port 80 virtual server. Also, there's a downside to the SUS-to-WSUS migration, which the WSUS documentation in general does a minimal job of calling attention to. If you install WSUS on a production SUS server, it will overwrite the /selfupdate virtual directory in the /SUS/ installation. This will have the impact of automatically upgrading /all/ of your clients to the Windows Update Agent, without much control over the process. If you're not expecting it, while it won't negatively impact functionality of SUS at all, any 'issues' with the successful updating process could cause some unexpected issues with the client. I imagine most people would like to 'control' when that client update to the WUA happens. My recommendation for a first time installation of WSUS is to install it on a spare box, or even in a virtual PC session, so that you can first work with the product and see how it functions, without the risk of it interfering with your production SUS environment. Then, when you've seen the first install in a pristine server environment, then you can pursue installing it on an existing production server, a bit more familiar with what to expect in the process. |